session essentials

Transcription

session essentials

Preschool/Kindergar ten
Proper 27 – A
session essentials
Scripture
Preparing for Christ
Matthew 25:1-13
We wait for Christ’s return—alert and ready.
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Jesus tells a story about 10 girls waiting for a celebration.
Young children live in the present moment, but they are also models for us of those who
live Jesus’ teaching to be ready at every moment to welcome the celebrations of God.
Today’s session explores the gospel story through age-appropriate talk, crafts, games and
art.
Core Session
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Enrichment
Getting Started (stuffed
animal)
Gospel Story: Ten Girls
(discarded gloves)
Party Snacks (bread, crackers,
hummus, jam, cream cheese,
fresh or dried fruit, juice,
balloons, paper party goods,
crepe paper streamers, birthday
candles, paper table cloth)
Praying Together
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Discover the Good News
Singing Together
Craft: Paper Lanterns (yarn)
Story-Review Game: My Lamp is Lit
(flashlight, small oil bottle; optional:
votive candle)
Info: Young Children and the
Gospel
Info: Where You’ll Find Everything
Else
Helps for Leaders
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More about Today’s Scriptures
Reflection
The World of the Bible: Kingdom of
Heaven
Living the Good News | Preschool/Kindergarten | Proper 27 – A
© 2014 Published by Morehouse Education Resources, http://www.MorehouseEducation.org. All rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this page for use in the purchasing congregation only.
1
Use a stuffed animal to spark discussion about a simple
birthday party, a way to introduce today’s gospel theme
of getting ready. You could also read to the children
A Birthday for Frances written by Russell Hoban;
illustrated by Lillian Hoban (New York: Harper,
1968).
By now it was dark outside, almost time for bed.
One by one the girls fell asleep. (Let the fingers
collapse, one at a time.)
Suddenly they heard a shout. “It’s almost time for
the party! Be sure you bring your lamp!” The girls
woke in a hurry! (Let the 10 fingers spring up.)
Ask each child to think of something we have to do to
get ready for a party, such as baking a cake, pouring
drinks or wrapping presents. Invite each child to act
out one idea for the group.
Now came the voice the girls had been waiting for.
“It’s time! Come to the party!” And the five wise
girls picked up their lamps and went off to the
wonderful party. (Let these five fingers dance away.)
Close by saying:
◆ In today’s story 10 girls are getting ready for a
special party.
But the five foolish girls never went to the party
at all.
Gospel Story (5-10 minutes)
Story Focus: On the fingertips of an old pair of gloves—
or directly on your fingertips—draw 10 faces. Use your
hands or wear the gloves as puppets as you tell today’s story.
You may need to talk about the words wise and foolish
before the story. You can explain that wise means making
good choices and foolish means making bad choices.
Ten Girls
Here is a story that Jesus told about five wise girls
(wiggle one set of fingers) and five foolish girls.
(Wiggle the other set of fingers.)
Once there were 10 girls who were waiting to go to
a wonderful party. (Wiggle all the fingers.) They were
waiting to hear the words, “Come to the party!”
Then it would be time to go.
The 10 girls waited. (Wiggle fingers.) And waited.
(Wiggle, a little less enthusiastically.) And waited.
(Barely move the fingers at all.)
Party Snacks (10-20 minutes)
Children prepare an impromptu party for today’s
snack. Include as many as possible of the children’s
ideas from today’s Getting Started activity.
Invite children to set a festive table for snack time.
Children can:
◆ use felt pens or crayons to decorate a paper table
cloth (or butcher paper taped to a table)
◆ inflate balloons and tape them to tables or chairs
◆ festoon tables, chairs or walls with streamers
◆ set out plates of snack sandwiches and cups of juice
You can play the game My Lamp is Lit (see StoryReview Game on page 4 of today’s session) to gather
children at the table.
Praying Together (5 minutes)
Invite the children to thank God for special times and
special parties. Close by praying:
◆ Thank you, God, for sending us special times
together. Thank you for sending us our special
Friend, Jesus, too. Amen.
Note: Distribute this week’s At Home with the Good
News to children before they leave, or e-mail it to their
parents after the session.
2
your basic and complete session
Whether or not you read the book first, place a stuffed
animal in the middle of the center. Invite the children
to imagine that today is the animal’s birthday. Ask:
◆ What would we do if we had a birthday party?
◆ How could we get ready for a party?
The five foolish girls looked at their lamps. (Bend
fingers of one hand toward central point.) The lamps
were almost empty of oil. “Oh, no,” the foolish girls
cried. “Our lamps are almost ready to go out!” And
they ran off into the night to look for oil for their
lamps. (Make these fingers scurry away.)
core session
Getting Started (5-15 minutes)
Craft (10-15 minutes)
(5-10 minutes)
Today’s story begins our long preparation for the
season of Advent, with its theme of waiting for Jesus.
On page 1 of today’s Discover the Good News you’ll find
a “story-starter” you can use with the children to talk
about ways we wait for Jesus.
Paper Lantern
Activity Soundtrack: Pay music suitable for a wedding
celebration, such as Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of
Sheba. (Open your Fall-A Seasonal Resources folder,
then click on Companion Music for options on
obtaining this music.)
On page 2 you’ll find a simple prayer activity you can
share with the children in today’s session: lighting a
candle and praying simple words.
Children make paper lanterns to use in the StoryReview Game on page 4 .)
You can find decorating beeswax at http://www.
oompa.com or by searching online for decorating
beeswax.
Singing Together (5-10 minutes)
Give each child a sheet of paper. Ask the children to
fold their paper in half lengthwise, then to cut slits in
it at about half-inch intervals.
Children finish the lanterns by following these
directions:
◆ Cut from the fold to the edge of the paper, cutting
both layers at once.
◆ Unfold the paper and roll it into a cylinder.
◆ Tape or staple the short ends together at the top
and then the bottom to make a lantern.
◆ Punch holes on each side of the top.
◆ String and tie yarn through holes to make a handle.
Save the finished lanterns to use in the Games activity.
From Singing the Good News, sing together:
◆ “Light Your Lamp” (songbook p. 14)
Note: To access both the songbook and its attached
MP3 files, open your Fall-A Seasonal Resources folder,
then click on Singing the Good News.
You could also teach these motions to the traditional
song “This Little Light of Mine”:
This little light of mine,
(Cup hands.)
I’m gonna let it shine.
(Raise arms up and out.)
(Cup hands.)
I’m gonna let it shine.
(Raise arms up and out.)
(Cup hands.)
I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
(Raise arms up and wave as you turn in a circle.)
3
enhance your core session with enrichment activities
If time allows, you can invite children to decorate
individual votive candles with pieces of decorating
beeswax. This wonderful material comes in thin,
colored sheets of wax that smell like honey. Provide
plastic knives for the children to cut the material
into thin strips or shapes that are then pressed to
the candle. The decorations will stick to the candle
without any need for glue.
enrichment
Discover the Good News
My Lamp Is Lit
Children use the paper lanterns made in today’s Paper
Lantern Craft activity to play this story-review game.
If you haven’t made lanterns, give each child an unlit
votive candle or battery-powered votive instead.
If you play this game before the Party Snack activity in
today’s Core Session, remind children that the girls in
today’s story needed lamps to go to their party. Explain
that when the children’s lamps are lit, they will go to
their party—today’s snack.
Young children can:
◆ set or clean tables at a soup kitchen
◆ hand out bulletins and greet worshipers
◆ serve cookies at coffee hour
◆ help bundle at a church recycling center
◆ sort food for a church food bank
Where You’ll Find
Everything Else
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Young Children
and the Gospel
In today’s parable, lighting a lamp is a symbol of being
ready to welcome Jesus. We help children welcome
Jesus in concrete ways when we include them in our
own outreach activities. Have you found a way to
invite children into your church’s service ministries yet?
We believe the most meaningful outreach activities for
children:
◆ are ongoing activities
◆ are activities in which the children feel welcomed
and needed
◆ are activities that mix the generations of the church
in community and service
Attached to this Session Plan you will find:
— Backgrounds and reflections for today’s
readings, titled More about Today’s Scriptures.
— Today’s Gospel Story, to distribute or e-mail to
children and their families.
— Suggestions for exploring Our Church.
— Directions for an alternate story-review activity
titled Where is the Oil?
— Instructions for an alternative Craft Activity.
— Today’s At Home with the Good News, to
distribute or e-mail to families after the session.
Open your Fall-A Seasonal Resources folder, then
click on Seasonal Articles to find:
— Information on Fall-A’s Models of the Faith.
— A printable article titled First Impressions, which
offers practical helps for the use of fine arts in
your classroom.
— An article for leaders and/or group members
further exploring Jesus’ Parables.
4
enhance your core session with enrichment activities
Directions for play:
◆ Dim the lights.
◆ Ask children to hold their lanterns and move
around the room while you play music.
◆ Ask a volunteer to be It.
◆ It holds a flashlight.
◆ When the music stops, the children hold up their
lanterns.
◆ It shines the flashlight at the lantern of one child.
◆ This child says, “My lamp is lit,” and goes to a
chosen area, such as the snack area.
◆ Ask a new volunteer to be It.
◆ Continue play until all the children are in the game
area.
We offer these suggestions as brain teasers, only, to
stimulate your own thinking about ways that young
children could participate in the ministries of your
church. We want for our children what we want for
ourselves: an opportunity to know Jesus in those
whom we serve.
enrichment
Story-Review Game (10-25 minutes)
Today’s readings issue a warning: Be prepared! Joshua
(Track 1) urges Israel to pledge their faithfulness to
the one true God. Amos (Track 2) warns that justice
and righteousness, not empty ritual and thoughtless
offerings, are how to prepare for the Lord’s coming.
Wisdom (Track 2 alternate) urges us to actively seek
wisdom and her rewards. Paul prepares the Thessalonians for Jesus’ return with the hope of reunion
with those who have died in Christ. In Jesus’ parable,
the long-delayed bridegroom arrives to find only five
bridesmaids prepared to celebrate with him.
Today’s reading is taken from a larger passage (6:1-21)
that urges all those in positions of authority to pursue
wisdom, which is personified as a desirable woman.
Though the reader is commanded to “seek” (v.
12), “desire” (v. 13), “fix one’s thoughts on” and be
“vigilant” (v. 15) for wisdom, she is readily accessible,
eager to reward the diligent student.
Amos 5:18-24 (Track 2 alternate)
Amos is one of the earliest prophets whose words
have come down to us as a separate book. Although
he was from Judah, his mission was to the northern
kingdom of Israel around 760–750 BC when,
under Jeroboam II, the kingdom was at the height
of prosperity. Its wealth and power rested, however,
upon injustice. Amos hammers at this discontinuity
between the external state of society, demonstrated by
its confidence in the day of the Lord, and the internal
decay of morality.
The day of the Lord was popularly anticipated as the
time when the Lord would vindicate Israel against
its enemies. Amos radically reinterprets this smug
expectation; that day will be “darkness, not light”
(v. 18). In verse 19, he offers two vignettes to show
that, despite Israel’s past experiences of deliverance, the
day of the Lord will bring unexpected judgment.
For the Jews, justice meant not merely obeying an
external legal standard but being actively concerned
with the well-being of all the members of the
community, a responsibility that issued from the basic
bond between the covenant people and God.
5
background information and bonus materials
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 (Track 1)
The pass of Shechem (Hebrew, “shoulders”) is in the
northern hill country of Israel, between Mt. Ebal and
Mt. Gerizim. It became an important worship center
before the beginning of the centralization of worship
at Jerusalem under the
monarchy. Now the
“The whole story of the
generation that has
bridesmaids is about
come into the promised
the great day of the
land enters into a
Lord, when those things
covenant with the Lord
concealed from the
similar to that into
human mind will be
which their ancestors
revealed through our
entered at Sinai.
understanding of divine
judgement. Then the faith
The ceremony here
true to the Lord’s coming
may have been an
will win the just reward for
annual renewal of the
unwavering hope.”
covenant. It follows the
––Hilary of Poitiers
form of ancient Hittite
political treaties of that
time. The recitation of God’s act of salvation forms the
Israelites’ historical creed. It is followed by the presentation of a choice, the response of commitment and
the enumeration of requirements. Early monotheism
was not a denial of the possibility of more than one
god, but rather a personal decision of commitment
to serve one particular god in response to God’s prior
choice of the people.
Wisdom 6:12-16 (Track 2)
Written around 100 BC, the book of Wisdom was
probably composed by a Hellenistic (Greek-speaking)
Jew who attributed his work to Solomon. The book
offers a fresh presentation of much of the earlier Old
Testament teaching on wisdom. The author seeks to
encourage his fellow Jews who suffer persecution at the
hands of Jews who had fallen away.
helps for leaders
More about Today’s Scriptures
Paul reminds the Thessalonians that all Christians have
been united with Christ in his death and resurrection. Those who are alive at the Lord’s return do not
“precede” (v. 15) or have any special advantage over,
those who have died. Christian hope is centered in
Christ and in union with him. “We will be with the
Lord forever” (v. 17).
The parable of the 10 bridesmaids is addressed to
the Church community and is a parable of the last
judgment. The figure of the bridegroom is to be
identified with the Messiah, and the community is
represented by the 10 bridesmaids.
The wise and the foolish bridesmaids both slept, but
the latter’s lack of forethought betrayed their true
character. The bridegroom, saying that he did not
know the bridesmaids, declares in effect that they had
never been his friends, though they had been members
of the bridal party. Here Matthew again emphasizes
his parallel themes of ethical consistency and personal
relationship: words matter less than obedience, which
demonstrates genuine love.
If the foolish bridesmaids compared notes with the
workers hired last in the vineyard, they might discover
some serious discrepancies in Jesus’ teaching. Why
is their forgetfulness punished harshly, while there’s
extravagant generosity for those who worked the
shortest day?
The door shuts with a terrible thud on the neglectful
bridesmaids. Without taking the parable too literally,
it implies that we must prepare for joy as well as for
drudgery and duty. Christ, like the bridegroom, comes
at midnight when all sleep and he is least anticipated.
He enters the many chambers of our lives, and those
who’ve “done their homework” are ready. They have
sought him in study and prayer; they have tried to
learn more about him and nurture their friendship
with him. For them, his coming is like welcoming an
old, dear friend. To the unprepared, he is a stranger.
The gospels may be ambiguous, but such readiness is
a consistent theme. Methodius (4th century) wrote
in the voice of the wise bridesmaids: “I have no heart
for friendly girls and dances… You, Christ, you, are
all in all to me.” It is to that point that we must come
someday.
The World of the Bible
Kingdom of Heaven
In his teaching and preaching, Jesus identifies God’s
ideal community as the kingdom of God (or of
heaven, as Matthew often writes). This community
is to be characterized by a new way of living together
that includes everyone (both Jew and Gentile) who as
brothers and sisters will relate to God as their Father
and as a King whose benevolent rule over them guides
every moment of their lives.
The kingdom is inaugurated by Jesus and continues
today in the Christian community that daily strives to
make God’s way of being a community into a reality.
6
background information and bonus materials
Matthew 25:1-13
Today’s reading comes from the last part of the fifth
great discourse (chaps. 24–25). In response to the
disciples’ questions about Jerusalem’s destruction and
the end of our world, Jesus prepares them for life
without his earthly presence. The three parables that
Matthew includes in chapter 25 provide some clues for
Christian behavior until Jesus returns in glory.
Reflection
helps for leaders
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Expectation of the Lord’s imminent return has raised
a concern among the Thessalonians: What is the fate
of Christians who die before Christ’s second coming?
Although Plato’s followers believed in immortality
for the soul alone, and the initiates of the mystery
religions expected to survive death, most pagans were
fatalists and did not believe in life after death.

session essentials

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